More News

After leading by as many as 14 points early in the fourth quarter, the Eleanor Roosevelt High School boys' basketball team withstood a furious late rally by upstart High Point to earn a 55-48 victory in the 4A South Region final at Henry A. Wise High on Saturday evening.

Roosevelt (19-5) captured the fifth region title in the program's 32-year history and the Raiders will continue their quest for the 4A state title at 7 p.m. Thursday at the University of Maryland, College Park's Comcast Center against Springbrook which beat Richard Montgomery, 64-54 in the 4A West Region final. High Point (15-8) which upended top seed Oxon Hill in overtime this past Thursday, rallied from a 48-34 deficit to get within 51-48 with 1 minute, 37 seconds remaining and had a chance to get closer following two Roosevelt turnovers. But the Eagles failed to convert on those opportunities and the Raiders pulled away late on free throws from David Abraham and NieRonn Miles.

"We've been in a lot of close games this year and I think that experience helped out down the stretch," said Roosevelt coach Brendan O'Connell. "This is one of the toughest regions in the state and you have to be ready to play all 32 minutes when you get to this level. I thought our guys made enough plays down the stretch to keep the lead. High Point came back and we had to settle down late and the guys hit some tough free throws. This is a rare opportunity to play for the state title next week."

Roosevelt sophomore forward Chaun Miller (13 points) connected on a 3-pointer to give the Raiders a 48-34 lead with just under six minutes remaining, and the victory seemed a near certainty at that point. Roosevelt had trailed after one quarter and was down 18-12 early in the second period, but the Raiders owned a 22-21 halftime advantage and pushed their lead to 41-34 heading into the fourth quarter. Miller's 3-pointer followed two baskets from Prince Okoroh and capped a 7-0 run to start the third quarter.

"It's an honor to be in the same locker room with these guys," Miller said. "They all work so hard and we stick together. The game got close at the end. High Point came back. We had to settle down and stop turning the ball over. Then we made some free throws at the end. It's an honor to be playing in the state semifinals next week. We've worked so hard to get to this point. We knew we could get there if we just stayed together and played as a team."

But the Eagles didn't fold. Senior guard Jalen Smith connected on a 3-pointer and added a conventional three-point play, senior Travis Baker scored a bucket and added two free throws and senior forward Javon Hayden scored on an offensive rebound. Suddenly the Eagles were within three points at 51-48. But following Roosevelt turnovers, Hayden and Baker both missed short jumpers that could have narrowed the deficit to one point and the Eagles failed to score in the last 90 seconds.

"We worked really hard the whole game," Hayden said. "We've been working hard all season. We fought through a lot of adversity, tonight and all season. We fell way behind in the fourth quarter, but we never gave up. We thought we could come back. It meant a lot to me to get this far my senior season. I thought we could win and keep moving forward. I'm glad that I was part of this team. We accomplished a lot this year."